Posted on 08/02/2017 2:19:35 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Japan's Acquisition Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA) released for the first time footage showing the XASM-3 supersonic anti-ship missile during a test launch. ATLA is a branch of Japan's MoD created in 2015 to "ensure technological superiority and respond to operational needs smoothly and quickly".
Screen capture from the ATLA video showing the XASM-3 launch.
It was recently reported that the missile will enter mass production in 2018 and be officially introduced with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), it will then be called ASM-3.
According to the Japanese MoD, aerodynamic and captive carry tests on F-2 fighters had been completed in 2015 and the missile was then in the final stages of prototype manufacturing.
Japanese media Yomiuri Online says that ASM-3 is characterized as being "difficult to intercept" because of its speed and is an answer to the Chinese Navy (PLAN) recent "aggressive activities in the East China Sea".
XASM-3 is capable of reaching Mach 3 speeds thanks to its ramjet engine fed by two air intakes (in a similar fashion to MBDA's Meteor air to air missile of to the French ASMP-A air-launched tactical nuclear missile). XASM-3 is flying close to sea level in the final stage of attack to reduce probability of detection and intercept.
XASM-3 basic specifications:
Overall length: 5.25m
Maximum speed: Mach 3 or more
Firing range: 80nm (about 150km) or more
Weight: 900kg
Power: Integral Rocket Ramjet
Navigation and seeker: inertial / GPS (intermediate stage) + active / passive seeker (terminal phase)
We recently reported that a similar missile, the XSSM intended for the Japanese Navy (JMSDF) was also tested earlier this year.
Two XASM-3 missiles fitted on a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2 Fighter during recent tests (May 2017). Picture via twitter @MR2AW11SP
Remember when the Argentines sank HMS Sheffield?
A single aircraft with a single French missile sank a capital ship of the Royal Navy. That should have changed everything.
Surface warships are inherently vulnerable. As missile tech improves, the problem of defending them will become impossible.
Just because the US is not advancing ship killing technology does not mean the rest of the World is standing still. Sometimes I think we intentionally lag in this area just because we are trying to make it go away by ignoring it.
It doesn’t work that way. The price of neglect will be paid in blood.
Could we be developing the weapons but keeping it quiet?
The U.S. needs to buy some.
There is a back-and-forth in this area, much like cryptography and code-breaking.
We are actively developing lasers as anti-missile weapons. Lasers are faster than hypersonic missiles. I can't say if the missiles will be obsolete or the surface ships will be obsolete, but it's smart to invest in both sides of that question.
I agree about the lasers - we are developing ever-more powerful ones, and in just a couple of years we’ll be able to shoot down anything that we can detect within a few miles of a ship. Check out the articles here: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/?s=navy+laser
HMS Sheffield was a destroyer of 4800 tons. By no stretch of the imagination was she a "capital ship".
And it didn’t detect the missiles until it was too late. That won’t happen to a US battle group these days.
“As missile tech improves, the problem of defending them will become impossible.”
And as anti missile tech improves the problem of defending them will be come trivial.
Maybe. But my statement is no less accurate than yours.
The Sheffield was in the same displacement class as the US Perry class FFG, which was the smallest surface combatant in our fleet for decades. Anyone who says that the Sheffield was a capital ship is ignorant. And the ship was sunk by a Exocet LAUNCHED FROM AN AIRCRAFT.
We ignore it because the main battery of the fleet are its aircraft.
Other ships exist to defend the carrier.
Don’t think it is a great doctrine, but that is the one we have and it worked in the last real naval war.
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